PROTESTERS MUST SELF-ISOLATE
In light of the news that a man in Victoria who attended the Black Lives Matter march in Melbourne rally has tested positive to COVID-19. I hope that Jenny McKinnon ("March a reason to be proud", The Daily Advertiser, June 10) and all the others who took part in the march have followed health authority guidelines and are now self-isolating for 14 days or at least are being tested for the COVID-19 virus.
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Michael Marien, Wagga
'MISINFORMATION' ON DEBATE
Helen Dalton and The Shooters need to put up, or shut up!
The debate around water has been toxic for some time, but in recent months it's become flooded in misinformation.
I believe this has been encouraged by The Shooters' Helen Dalton, particularly on social media. It has created fear and anger, the two things a cross-bench member like Ms Dalton needs to thrive.
No respectful debate can occur without the facts, which are;
- Ms Dalton's much vaunted water bill is redundant - she is well aware the clerks of the Parliament have already ruled that water assets need to be declared by Members of Parliament.
- Be careful what you wish for - Ms Dalton's 'water register' captures every single irrigator and farmer in a publicly accessible register. She will create 'Aussie Farms 2.0'. Every single Green group or protester against irrigation will have your details and be able to target you, in exactly the same way Aussie Farms did.
- Ms Dalton's bill did not capture water trades. There was no requirement to declare when water was traded, nor the value of that trade. This was a particularly interesting omission from the only person I am aware of, who trades water in the NSW Parliament. It makes me wonder how this obvious oversight occurred?
The new bill put forward by Water Minister Melinda Pavey corrects these issues. Ms Dalton calls this a 'watered down' bill, but if protecting mum and dad farmers and requiring big trading players in Parliament to record their trades is watering the bill down, then you have to ask why she is fighting it and why she's afraid of it?
Finally, Ms Dalton is doing a disservice to the people of Murray and NSW by continuing to allude to water corruption on social media, then casually including mentions of myself, along with others.
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It creates distrust with voters and I am continually asked 'how much water do I have?' or I'm called 'corrupt' by social media trolls.
I do not have any water. I have never had water. I can't afford the $17 million odd in water assets to trade, in the manner that Ms Dalton does. If I did, I would have had to declare it on my Parliamentary register, as per the clerk's advice.
If Ms Dalton wants to continue mentioning me in social media posts that contain the word 'corruption', then I demand she puts up, or shuts up. Table what proof you have in the Parliament, or hand it to authorities.
Perhaps Ms Dalton should instead focus on delivering for the electorate, because in the more than 12 months she has been the member, she has failed to deliver on a single promise made.
They'd be right to ask, why she is so focused on an issue she has a large financial interest, when so many other areas in the electorate go without her attention?
Wes Fang, duty MLC for the electorate of Murray
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